Swedish Music Creators Form the Music Rights Awareness Foundation

It’s hard to argue that nowadays, most music creators feel a lot of uncertainty about how exactly to go through the digital marketplace. It’s even harder to argue that a lot of them end up being paid small sums of pennies for their work.

Swedish songwriter, record producer, and hit singer Max Martin has teamed up with Björn Ulvaeus from ABBA and pop songwriter Niclas Molinder to launch the Music Rights Awareness Foundation. Their aim is to make sure that all of the world’s music creators get compensated fairly in the digital realm.

“Information and education is obviously always key and I am hoping Music Rights Awareness, together with others, will help the creative community help themselves in the challenges ahead,” says Max Martin.

The first goal is Music Rights Awareness to be able to increase the knowledge to all musicians of their rights. How will they do this? Through support and education, Music Rights Awareness will help music creators take back the control of their rights, thus allowing them to make a living from their music regardless of their economic, cultural or geographical location and conditions.

“In the new, digital world the songwriter is often the weaker part in a negotiation. Knowledge is power and that’s where Music Rights Awareness comes in,” says Björn Ulvaeus.

“While working together, we realized that there is an ignorance when it comes to rights among both songwriters and the industry. We are convinced that many of the legal disputes that are now underway could have been averted, and with Music Rights Awareness we can help the world’s musicians at a broader level,” says Niclas Molinder.

The foundation’s first project is Music Rights in Africa, where they’re focusing on educating musicians in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Malawi. There’s still not a lot of information available yet on the foundation’s endeavors in Africa.